"The price should be set at $19.9. I'll only make this exception for you, and you should trust in your own abilities. You've earned the right to develop a $19 game."
Takayuki confidently replied to the three girls. He had also uploaded the game from the backend to the Battle.net platform, ready for release at any moment.
Aiko didn't hesitate for long and replied, "Then let's go with $19.9. I trust your judgment, Takayuki-sensei."
"Good."
Takayuki casually clicked the upload button.
Dead Cells, Producer: Nintendo and Triangular Game Studio, co-developed the world-dominating game.
After filling in the basic information, the game was officially uploaded.
Once the upload was complete, Takayuki typed again, replying to Aiko and the others: "Alright, it's uploaded. Now all we can do is wait."
...
...
Phew.
For some reason, Aiko had been very nervous earlier, but once Takayuki-sensei said the game was officially uploaded, she gradually calmed down.
Now there was no turning back.
All that was left was to quietly wait for the game's sales results.
The three girls had spent the past half year sleepless, working on this game, so it was finally time for a break.
"Is it uploaded?" Kanemi asked from the side.
Aiko nodded. "Yes, now we just wait for the game's sales performance."
"Wow... It's finally over. I'm so exhausted," Kanemi said, completely relaxing.
She couldn't relax fully until Dead Cells was released.
Every time she worked on the game's design, she was constantly thinking of ways to improve the style compared to the last version.
She had changed the art style and design of Dead Cells more than twenty times.
Takayuki-sensei had only given one limitation—keep the pixelated style—and from there, the three girls were free to create.
In the end, the results were quite satisfying for Kanemi.
Now that it was released, she no longer had to worry about making any more design changes.
Aiko stood up from the sofa and said to the other two, "Let's go out for a meal to celebrate our new game release!"
"Oh, I want takoyaki!" Kanemi exclaimed.
"Idiot, can you be a bit more refined? I think we should go to Ginza for sushi," Aiko said generously.
Aiko smiled, "It's fine. Let's eat whatever we want. Let's just indulge this time!"
"Yay!" Kanemi shouted, excited.
Meanwhile, in his office, the top game reviewer, Murakami Ichiro, arrived at work.
As soon as he entered the office, he noticed a couple of employees napping at their desks.
The company wasn't particularly strict about employee management, so even if someone fell asleep at their desk, no one would care.
Murakami Ichiro knew that these sleepyheads were probably the ones addicted to playing Titanfall recently.
They often stayed late at the office after work, playing the online mode of Titanfall together.
The essence of Titanfall wasn't just its single-player mode.
While the single-player mode's story and gameplay were extremely fun and innovative, it was in the online mode that the real excitement lay.
Murakami Ichiro was the first to publicly give Titanfall a five-star rating on his review site.
He felt it deserved that rating.
Titanfall was top-tier, from its gameplay to its narrative structure and variety of gameplay modes.
Some of the gameplay in Titanfall was already quite common in Takayuki's world, but this was the first time it had been realized in this world. A game introducing so many new and unique features deserved nothing less than a five-star rating.
Soon, many other up-and-coming gaming media also gave Titanfall close-to-perfect ratings.
They believed that Titanfall could now be compared with top-tier games like Super Mario Galaxy and The Legend of Zelda, making it a textbook example of first-person shooters.
These praises were all for the single-player mode. The online mode hadn't yet received too many evaluations.
But honestly, there was no need for more reviews.
The concurrent online players were already proof enough.
On the Battle.net platform, there was a special section that tracked the number of concurrent players for various games.
Once Titanfall was released, it quickly surpassed StarCraft and Counter-Strike—the two most popular online games on Battle.net.
The global number of concurrent players reached an astonishing million-level.
This didn't even count the console platforms.
The concurrent players on consoles would only be more.
After playing Titanfall's single-player mode, many players were left wanting more. Thankfully, Titanfall also had an online mode, and they were eager to experience it further.
There were only a limited number of times players could control a Titan in the main storyline, and they were surely not satisfied with that amount of playtime.
The online mode would be where they would pursue more.
Additionally, the online mode offered two different modes: player cooperation against AI and player-versus-player battles.
Everyone could find a mode that suited their style.
Thus, Titanfall's online mode had been incredibly popular recently.
According to incomplete statistics, the well-known multiplayer game Dragon's Treasure had seen a decline in its player numbers since Titanfall's online mode release. Brown Entertainment had even tried various methods to retain players, hoping they wouldn't switch to Titanfall, but their efforts were in vain.
Looking at the few employees who had clearly been up all night, Murakami Ichiro could only smile helplessly, not paying much attention to them.
His media review company was quite relaxed, and that was something he had learned from Gamestar Electronic Entertainment.
It was precisely because of this relaxed environment that everyone's creativity in game reviews and articles had been maximized, creating a virtuous cycle.
Murakami Ichiro walked past the general employee area and entered his office.
Instead of starting work right away, he immediately opened the Battle.net platform on his computer.
Before doing any actual work, he was going to play a few rounds of Titanfall online mode to wake himself up.
It had recently become one of his favorite activities.
Just then, he noticed a new notification in his inbox.
He moved the mouse over and saw the prompt:
"The game creator you follow, 'Nintendo's World Domination,' has released a new game. Click the link below to go to the page."
Huh? The creator has released a new game!
Murakami Ichiro looked at the message in surprise.